When Will I Hold You?
by Matthew Talbain
Summary: A pair of starcrossed lovers reflect on their feelings for each other at different times. Who are they? What is it their souls hold for each other?
1. Chapter One: Rainy Day Man

When Will I Hold You?

A Ranma Nibunoichi x-over

by Matthew Talbain

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma Nibunoichi, nor do I own the lyrics to Sailor Moon's Makoto image song, "Rainy Day Man".

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Don't worry, Forgotten Yesterday is still on. I'm just having a hard time with chapter three.

------------Chapter One: Rainy Day Man--------------

It all started on that day. That day....that day, I first met you. Well, the day I first REALLY met you. It was Heaven, it was the starts and moon, it was everything I'd ever hoped for. And now, that day hurts me more than anything I've ever known. Because I know I can never have you. Besides, why would you, the paragon of men, want me? Little old me...

I remember that day well. It was about a year after you first arrived, kicking and screaming, your pigtail clutched in the grip of that...that madwoman. Oh, I know I shouldn't call my best friend a madwoman, but the way Akane treats you is just horrible. I've seen firsthand how much you've tried to change, how you've always gone that extra distance to try to reason with her.

And all your efforts are rewarded with "Ranma no baka!" or "Ranma no hentai!" and some frequent flyer miles into Tomobiki or Juuban. It hurts me just to watch you go flying through the air, and it hurts me even more to watch you limp past my window, that false smile plastered on your face as you go to your doom once more, for yet another imagined slight. Oh, Ranma....

Why can't I get that day out of my head? I remember it so clearly...

We'd just started our second year, and it was your seventeenth birthday. I remember that especially well, because of the incredibly pained look on your face. But I remember that day even more because it was the day my boyfriend left me, left me for an impossible dream so many other boys wanted to follow. That damned madwoman, as usual.

I don't know why, to this day, I went to the bridge, the one you called "your bridge", to cry. But I did. All I could do was cry, for hours. And then, around lunchtime at school, you came to cry yourself, in hiding. I remember it so well.

I was leaning against the rock support, and all I could think was "_Why does life have to be so heartless to me?"_. And then you dropped down, facign away from me, your shirt torn and your back heaving with sobs. My own ceased, and I crept up to you.

I almost giggled at the way you just stopped crying all of a sudden and whirled to see me. And you just stared at me, your mouth gaping, until you saw my tears. And you spoke to me.

"What're ya doin' at my bridge? More importantly, what's wrong? Ya get hurt?" And I just started crying again. I ran headlong into your arms and I just cried my tears out. And, like most romantic fantasy men girls dream about, you just stroked my hair, forgetting your own problems and started worrying about mine. You'll never know how grateful I am for that moment, and I'll always remember it. I'll always remember the way you whispered my name secretly, softly, the way you began telling me about your own problems even as it began to drizzle gently and cleansingly.

_**When I think about the first time  
I thought I found someone who cared for me  
**__**But things were not as they appeared to be...**_

Since that day, Ranma, I'll always remember the way your chest felt so strong, so unbending and yet so giving. And the way you always stop to talk to me, to make sure I'm alright. it's so sweet of you. No wonder I fell for you.

Yes, Ranma, I admit it, at last. You aren't a pervert, you aren't an arrogant, self-absorbed bastard like I once thought you were. I should never have let Akane get me to believe those things about you. Maybe if I hadn't, I'd have had a chance to be with you. Some hopeful part of me still thinks I do, that you mean more when you stop and talk to me, that that smile you reveal when you're limping past my window is reserved just for me...

_**Rainy day man  
On your shoulder I cried  
**__**When my first brush with love  
**__**Left me shaking inside  
**__**Rainy day man...**_

You were hurting badly, that day. Oh, why do I keep ending there? Maybe because everything began there...well, everything between us. It was your birthday, and you'd been fought with not so much as reprieve from your father. Your mother, I remember, was expecting you to lose your virginity that day, your father expected you to suck it up and be a man, and Akane...

Akane beat you, she gave you an extra malleting because of that remark your mother made. That damnable Ryouga and Mousse hounded you viciously, and Shampoo, Kodachi, and Ukyou, damn those hussies, wanted to act on your mother's expectations for a birthday "encounter". I'll never forget the nearly lifeless look in your eyes as you jumped down to the bridge, turning away from me and crying.

_**Ever since I can remember  
Just like a brother, you've been strong and true  
**__**Always been the one to see me through...**_

I remember, so fondly, the way you looked at me when I held you close and cried, for both you and me. The look of happiness the next day when I privately handed you a cake, a new shirt, and a "Happy Birthday" almost outdid it, but I'll hold tight to that spark I saw when I held you, that spark that told me you felt more for me than for any other person you'd ever felt anything for.

_**Rainy day man  
You're much more than a friend  
**__**I would give anything  
**__**Just to see you again  
**__**Rainy day man  
**__**Always been the one to see me through...**_

Now, here I am, staring at a picture of you, wanting to hold you, to kiss you. I fell in love with the sensitive, caring, honorable young man with no way out. I still admire the way you do your best not to hurt any of your so-called fiances, and I admire the way you always, despite their violent attacks, try to maintain a friendship with all of your rivals. Nobody else I know, Ranma, would contantly try to help any young men who try to kill then on a daily, or near-daily, in Ryouga's case, basis. But you do.

You put up with your gluttonous, greedy panda father, your deluded, mentally-unseetled mother, and a family of psych ward rejects. Okay, Kasumi isn't nearly that clueless, and she is trying her best to help her family, but still, Nabiki, Tendo-san, and Akane more than make up for her lack in the psychiatric ward's requirements.

_**Rainy day man  
On your shoulder I cried  
**__**When my first brush with love  
**__**Left me shaking inside  
**__**  
Rainy day man  
**__**You've much more than a friend  
**__**I would give anything  
**__**Just to see you again...**_

For all of that, Ranma, and for being my freidn when I needed one, for being my Rainy Day Man, I love you.

_**Rainy day man....**_

I love you for being everything you are. I love you for putting up with everything you've done for me.

_**Rainy day man....**_

I love you for that first kiss under the bridge, that kiss that you weren't allowed to give. I love you for holding me, for that spark in your eyes.

_**Rainy day man....**_

But most of all, Ranma...most of all....

_**Rainy day man....**_

I love you for the way you whispered my name, the loving tone you used when you said...

"Sayuri...."

---------Author's Corner-----------

Well, come on, review me! I need feedback! Should I do a second chapter or what? If so, what song should I use, and from whose point of view?

I love you all, people.


	2. Chapter Two: Glory of Love

When Will I Hold You?

A Ranma Nibunoichi x-over

by Matthew Talbain

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma Nibunoichi, nor do I own the lyrics to Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love".

------------Chapter Two: Glory Of Love--------------

I keep reliving that day, Sayuri. No matter how many times I get hit, no matter how often I forget what I learned in Hinako-sensei's class, I can't forget that day. You changed my life, and in no small way, that day. I thank you for it, Sayuri, but I cursed it at the same time. It's a blessing to me, and it always will be, in that I love and cherish every single moment we spent under that bridge, and every moment I was near you afterward.

I cursed it, then, because to me, it was impossible to be with you. you, with your untouchable beauty, your kawaii-overkill ponytail, and your elegance whenever you took on a more serious air...

Daisuke has no idea what he let go of back then.

You, with your perfection, and me, with my paddy-farmer talk and crude people skills, it was untouchable. You had calm elegance, I had a hick accent. You had beauty, I had a pigtail and gaijin clothes. You had friends, I had rivals and suitors out the yin-yang. So I cursed it.

Akane, Nabiki, hell, nearly everyone, even you for a time, thinks, or thought, I did what I did for attention. I did it all...to keep everyone's honor intact. The fiances didn't want to accept that, my rivals wouldn't believe it, and my "friends" thought I was keeping "their" girls away from them. Funny, they never believed I never wanted a single one of them. Just you, seemingly the one girl who didn't care for me one bit.

_**Tonight it's very clear,  
As we're both lying here,  
**__**There's so many things I want to say.  
**__**I will always love you,  
**__**I would never leave you alone.**_

That day, everything changed. I'd been having a bad day. I woke up, expecting a reprieve from being thrown out the window into the koi pond. I'd never failed to get some leeway, some rest, on my birthday before. Why should my seventeenth be any different?

It started out as hell with Akane malleting my head into my pillow, I never found out why. I came down to breakfast and got, for my early awakening,a glass of cold water dumped over my head by an unrested Nabiki. I had to sit through my mother's disapproving glare, intensified to the tenth power, all breakfast while I was a girl.When I ws done eating, and was waiting for Akane to start blaming me for making us late, though school wouldn't start for another hour, Mom dropped the bombshell.

_**Sometimes I just forget,  
Say things I might regret.  
**__**It breaks my heart to see you crying.  
**__**I don't wanna lose you,  
**__**I could never make it alone.**_

She expected me to concieve lots of children for her to spoil and carry on the "honorable Saotome legacy". Akane decided that my mother wanting me to make manly on my birthday constituted some form of perversion on my part and I found myself at eye level to the queen ant of the antpile under the kitchen floor. I shot my mouth of, carefully choosing every word I would call her that time. My father decided I was being a girly man and berated me for it. Still, I couldn't suppress the hope, even then, that I could be with you.

I left for school, earlier than Nabiki, and got accosted by a purple-headed whore. She thinks I don't know of her sleeping with every male who'll give her the time of day, besides Mousse. I hate her so much, I'm glad she had to leave when she got pregnant with Mikado Sanzenin's child. Anyway, that day, she grabbed me and squeezed my crotch, saying she'd give me lots of babies for "her future mother-in law" to spoil. That was overstepping my boundaries, and I let her know. Most of the population of Nerima thinks I don't hit girls. Shampoo found out that it's a wrong assumption. She woke up five hours later, Sanzenin above her.

_**I am a man who will fight for your honor.  
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of.  
**__**We'll live forever,  
**__**Knowing together that we  
**__**Did it all for the glory of love.**_

Ukyou came next, saying that she was the girl I'd make children for my mother to care for with. She didn't touch me anywhere, but when I flat-out refused, saying that I had someone else I wanted to be with, to say it to for my birthday, she attacked me, yelling that she'd kill the hussy that enspelled me in such an evil way. I fougt back, angry at her for calling you, the most beautiful girl on campus, the most untouchable beauty, a hussy. I fought like a tiger, leaving her dazed. My shirt was slightly torn, and I stalked off towards school, angray at her claiming to love me when she was whoring herself out to Tsubasa and Konatsu. I swear, that whole freakin' group is gender confused.

Kuno stood in my way when I arrived, quite late, quoting crappy reinvented Shakespeare, yes I know that word, and saying he'd broken my hold over the "fierce tigress Akane, for surely her lonely arrival" must mean his "attentive ministrations to the bond" of their so-called "love" had broken my "spell" over her. I beat him into submission, tearing the left knee of my best pants in the process. I entered the classroom, trying to ignore Aken glaring at me because Hinako-sensei had "forgotten" to wear her bra that day and bent over my desk almost every minute of the class.

_**You keep me standing tall.  
You help me through it all.  
**__**I'm always strong when you're beside me.  
**__**I have always needed you,  
**__**I could never make it alone.**_

I never noticed you were gone until Ryouga and Mousse barrelled through the wall, claiming they would kill me for injuring the honor of their one true loves. By this time, having had only one "Happy Birthday" all day, though that one didn't count, seeing as it was followed by the equivalent of "you'd better make me some grandbabies or else!", I was pretty much pissed and depressed. I let the two have it, sending them on a one-way trip to the Nekohanten.

Akane pelted me into the park while my back was turned, for leading on "another of my goddamned hussies" and for "picking on poor P-chan!". I knew, at this moment, that she'd known all along about Ryouga's curse. Nobody could be THAT stupid, after all. I ran to my bridge, the beginnings of tears forming in my eyes. It all added up. Akane beating me for no reason, my parents only caring about their hopes and dreams, my so-called fiances screwing everyone else and treating me like an object or bet between them. I'd pelted Kodachi, offering the same things to me as the other two while she was pregnant with either Gosunkugi or Sasuke's child, I forget whose, out of the way before I reached the bridge. I jumped over the side, sobbing.

_**I am a man who will fight for your honor.  
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of.  
**__**We'll live forever,  
**__**Knowing together that we  
**__**Did it all for the glory of love.**_

I never noticed you until I felt your hand on my shoulder. I'd been crying at the hopelessness of it all, of everything happening on my birthday, for a good minute before you touched me. And I saw you crying and my heart jumped. I stopped caring about my troubles as you spilled the news to me of Daisuke treating you like dirt, then dumping you, all because he wanted to score a chance in bed with Akane. I never wanted to kill anyone, even Pops, as much as I did just then. But I didn't show it. I just held you, comforted you, and stroked your hair. I swear, Sayuri, I was crying myself, though you couldn't see me, because I was actually holding my dream come true in my arms, right then.

Nobody had ever caught my longing stares at you in the classroom before, nobody having reason to. Everyone assumed I kept my head down to sleep, but I was really peeking under my arm, looking at you. I memorized, achingly, how you would toss you hair just so when you laughed. And when you were in a bad mood, you would always toy with the end of your chestnut ponytail. Oh, gods, Sayuri, I'd wanted to hold you so badly it hurt, and there I was, holding you, crying in my arms. I pinched myself to wake up. It didn't work.

_**Just like a knight in shining armor  
From a long time ago,  
**__**Just in time I will save the day,  
**__**Take you to my castle far away!**_

All I could do then, Sayuri, was hold you, like you wanted. You began to talk to me, so I poured my heart out to you. I never once expected to hold you and kiss you as the sunset made itself known to us under the bridge. I promised you the only thing I could right then, that I'd always be your friend, that I'd always be there if you needed me. It hurt me to say that, but if I said anything else, you would have run from me. How could you like me, femboy, when you yourself were so perfect?

Time began to pass, and I found myself spending more time than I intended with you, and I began to have more than just a fantasy crush on you. It turned into a love fresh out of the movies. As I found myself eating pavement in other districts, fighting brutal battles against Akane's cooking and meeting mallet-sama, only to have to fight my way back and limping through the city streets to the place I was supposed to call home, I would always see you watching me through your window, and I'd always give you the only smile I ever meant that whole day. Just for you, only for you, Sayuri.

_**I am a man who will fight for your honor.  
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of.  
**__**We'll live forever,  
**__**Knowing together that we  
**__**Did it all for the glory of love.**_

And then, one fateful day, I found myself running to you when Akane and Ryouga "accidentally" met in the furo. I held you, cried on your shoulder when I realized I had been played, been lied to. We kissed, for the second time ever, and I stopped cursing the day we met under the bridge. I told you how much I loved you, desperate to get that festering weight off of my chest. And, to my surprise and joy, you said it back. we kissed passionately, deeply, and for the first time, my body met with yours the way a man's body was supposed to meet with a woman's body.

I woke up the next morning and kissed you deeply, tighteining my arms around you and sobbing again. After that day, I handled all of my problems, one by one. Akane, I exposed to our fathers. She and Ryouga were (unhappily) married the next day. Mousse found himself watching Shampoo drag the man who got her pregnant away to her village. I haven't seen either of them since. Both Kunos I had put into an asylum, Happosai I had sent to a men's prison. He can't handle being around so many men, so his ki is so low he can't escape. Ukyou gave up on me, and my parents went to prison for child abuse, endangerment and gross negligence of minor, and Pops' petty crimes.

_**We're gonna live forever,  
Knowing together that we  
**__**Did it all for the glory of love.**_

And, after all that, I moved out on my own. I opened my doors and arms to you and made public that I loved you. And after that...

_**We did it all for love!**_

After you held me, after you accepted me...

_**We did it all for love!**_

After you took my heart, after everything to be said then was said, when all that had to be done was done...

_**We did it all for love!**_

After all of this, even after we both moved to Juuban, I asked you, Sayuri, the most important question in the world to me. The one question that would change my life more surely then even that day under the bridge...I asked you to marry me. And your answer, Sayuri, to that oh-so important question was...

_**We did it all for love!**_

"Yes!"

-----------------Author's Corner-----------------

Yeah, short and WAFFy I know....but, hey, if you want more, R&R! I'd really like your opinions. It's up to you whether or not this fic is complete!


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